Each of these sessions is critical to writers at stages in the journey of their work.

*Special Guests authors Terri Arthur, on the international publishing of her book (Fatal Decision: Edith Cavell WWI Nurse), and Priscilla E. Flint-Banks, memoir writer (I Look Back and Wonder How I Got Over), radio host, social activist, and marketer.

*AWB members Pat Perry and Joyce Keller Walsh will be available to speak with guests individually about genre-writing, as well as other writing, publishing, and promoting topics.

Spring: A Time for a Spiritual Change

I think the signs of Spring coming after winter is ending gives all of us hope for new things in our life. Most of all, I hope we want to change our ways to a better way of living. Not only with the usage of drugs, but with our souls.

So many don't put the two changes together. No matter what you're trying to reach, I can't picture not praying to God to help us on our journey. We seem to overlook Him, until something terrible happens to us or a loved one. Then all of a sudden, we turn to God to help us out of the situation, even the unbelievers.

I've heard people swearing to not believe in a God, including one man I've known for years. His daughter fell off stairs and hit her head on cement and rushed to a hospital. She was only six at the time. He had to drive an hour to get to the hospital. His first words were, "Please, God, let her be all right."

How many of us send promises to God if He answers our prayers? You have to believe in Him first. You have to believe He is loving and merciful. He may not answer your prayers the way you want. He does in His time and His way.

I know, because I could not have said more rosaries, novenas and prayers to Him to save my daughter, Lori, from her cirrhosis of the liver. See, God had already taken my husband, Lori's father, in 1985 at forty-five years of age from his drinking and suffering from the same disease.

Why would God give me the same pain, even worse, take my daughter, my child? It was 2006, and Lori was only 39 years old. My pain was still raw as I had to watch the same scene in Charlton Memorial Hospital in Fall River, MA, as I had with Richie at the VA Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island. I saw Lori take her first breath, and her last.

Things may not go as we plan or pray for with a crisis. THIS was a crisis to me. My child. I felt like my heart had been ripped out of me. There is no greater pain than losing a child.

I went through my pain, and fought from going into a corner and dying myself. It took only minutes for me to know from my love of God that He had His reason. To this day, I don't know what it was, but I know Lori and Richie can't be in better Hands.

It's not easy. I may look and act strong, but I let go of my sorrow in private. I have to pray for another year without them to go on and do whatever I'm supposed to do. The same should go for you. Do you need and want to give up addiction, pray to Him. He never left you. You left Him. He gives us choices. We have to make them. Put your pain and decisions into His hands. Believe! Believe, until you think you can't make the decision or see the results.

Pray when you don't believe. He already knows you don't. And to think He still loves us when we don't believe in Him. How lucky we are to have Him with us no matter what we do or how bad our actions might be.

To me, these are the changes for the Spring to head towards. See if you find a difference. You will never be alone. You won't be judged. You will be understood. You don't have to explain.

Easter is around the corner. He rose from the dead to give us life with His death. He promises a place for us if we believe in Him. This is our life now, but our death is life forever.

Make those changes. Don't hesitate. Change is growth. Take a chance. If you don't try, you will always wonder "What if I had?" Believe in yourself. Believe in God.

New Book Coming!

Get ready my followers. I finished The Rusty Years. My first fictional story. It will be a sequel in 3 books. Hopefully, it will be in print in 6 months.

Except:

Today, June 14, 2013, is my birthday.How did Iever live through all the catastrophes and heartbreak in my life to reach the ripe old age of ninety-two?

Yes, Jenny Rose has been through a lot. Many past memories of her growing years traveled through her old mind, as she sat in her rocking chair on the front porch facing the wide-open ocean from her home in Chatham, Massachusetts. She kept the old rocker that her mother had used every night to read her stories while she sat on her lap as a young child.

Her memories traveled to losing her true love, Todd Costa, and giving their child up for adoption. Even at this old age, Jenny couldn't forget the past. She struggled to let go, but wanted answers before she died. What happened to her daughter? Where did she and Todd go wrong?

Welcome 2017

Yes, it’s here. A new year…a new beginning. No more putting your head in the sand.

Here are your New Years Goals.

I am an alcoholic and I need to face the fact. I want my wife, husband, children, job, friends and life back. I will not let anything get in my way; lies, other abusers calling me, going to drinking parties, a slip, or negative friends.

I will find:

A recovery program, new sober friends, search out jobs, face my past hurts and pains to talk them out with a professional team, forgive and let the past go. I will put my weakness in God’s hands, I won’t allow someone who hurt me to keep me from having the life God intended me to have, go into detox if necessary, find an outlet with exercise and fun, start a hobby, read, enjoy a non-alcoholic beverage!

Now, write down your own dreams you want to follow. Don’t get overwhelmed. Do them one at a time. If you fall, get up and start over. It took you a long time to become an alcoholic or drug addict, it will take you time to heal.

Be good to yourself. Have faith in God and you will in yourself. Pray. It’s more powerful than you think. Don’t think negative and push the fear away. Go to your house of worship.

Find the Why!

I have always believed that the professionals need to find out "Why" the substance abusers use; not concentrating on trying to cure them of their alcohol, drug or precription habits.

Looking back to when I had been blessed with my husband, Richard (who we called Richie), and my daughter, Lori, being in my life, I remember the people they were before this horrible alcohol abuse kept them from being happy, as they once were.

Both of them had pain from their past and I didn't see it or tried. I looked at the "problem" with their drinking; the blackouts, yelling or fights. Mylife was upside down from the effects of their actions, and I had been struggling to get my normal life back, when I should have stopped and looked at how to help them get their lives back, get them into recovery (which they had in time).

I should have sat down in a peaceful atmosphere and talked to them--no, I take that back. I should have listened to their hurt and pain. We don't learn anything from doing all the talking.

I should have talked to Lori and Debbie after their father died in the beginning with our quiet time about my life with their father's drinking coming into our family and what happened when they were babies listening to the fights and confusion. If I had, maybe, just maybe, Lori would have understood why she grew up with fear and no security in her life.

As for Richie, I should have made demands as soon as I realized there was a drinking problem. How do you know it's a problem? When it causes problems. Instead, I could have gotten the highest award for being an enabler. There was the covering up with family that there was even a problem, not talking to Richie about it the day after a blackout, instead I went into the silent treatment.

But the healthiest action should have been demanding getting professional help. If the answer, which it was, had been no, than I should have kicked him out until he did. I gave him no choice and excepted his actions day after day, year after year. When in the meantime, my daughters suffered. As parents, it's up to us to protect our children, not the other parent using.

I didn't make him drink, but I helped bring him deeper into his problem. We didn't know Lori had a problem until she was thirty-seven and she died at thirty-nine. See doing something about the problem, even if they never recover, is from love and helps them look at their problem and maybe desire the want to stop their merry-go-round of bouts.

Richie came from a family of drinkers..another reason I believe this disease can be hereditary for some users. Others start by following the crowd, too many parties with heavy drinking, wanting to fit in with friends, have past hurts they are trying to bury, instead of facing them head-on, losing someone they love from death or a breakup. The list can go on. Instead of trying to get closer to Richie and trying to understand him, I pulled away from anger, fear, and abuse. One huge mistake, I didn't reach out for help for myself until ten years went by and the demon had a tight grip on him. I didn't turn to parents who might have helped us.

As for Lori, after I lost Richie to cirrhosis of the liver, I didn't take the time to see the pain she had been in with her life. I was now alone as a parent trying to act like a dad also instead of sitting down with both Lori and Debbie and talking about the loss of their father. We buried our heads in the sand. I was the adult, I should have started the talk and had us all listen to each other's pain.

I had no education on addiction. I came from a happy, close family. I was young myself with no idea what this disease was or how it could hurt the whole family. Looking back, if did have the knowledge maybe the problem would have been handled differently.

Listen to your loved one!! That's the beginning and my most important advice. Don't give up on them.

Lori loved and hurt losing her father (more than I had realized). Her drinking caused her to lose her job, home, car, kids, and her pride!

Am I punishing myself...as people say I do? No, I see the signs after their deaths of things I could have done to maybe help the situation. It's the maybe, should have, could have that kill us when they die. I want to open youreyes to what you maybe able to do to save your loved one, instead of going to a cemetery on holidays to see them.

Merry Christmas to All

Christmas has different meanings to all of us. I love this picture of the candles. It’s a time for peace and love. Those feelings come over me seeing the light flickering.

Most of all, Christmas is Jesus. His birth to save us. Bring Him in your life. You won’t feel alone. Just open your hearts. Forget the gifts under the tree for a moment and remember what “Christ”..mas is all about for us.

Let Christmas and New Years be a safe holiday for all of you. Keep close to the people that love you. If you’re fighting your addiction, be with friends and family that don’t use. This is where you get high.

Please don't drink for the Holidays. We love you!

Merry Christmas!

Both my husband, Al, and myself, wish all of you a very Merry Christmas. It's a time to be thankful for what we have had through the year.

Sometimes, we aren't blessed with sharing our holiday with loved ones. Families maybe in different states and some of us might have lost loved ones. November 22, 2016 made ten years my daughter, Lori, has been gone from dying of cirrhosis of the liver from years of drinking. It doesn't seem possible that many years have passed.

The gap is always there opening gifts, seeing her children, having a lump in my throat hearing Christmas songs, and sitting around the dinning room table having a holiday meal. Her seat is empty again for another year.

I have to be thankful that we have our other children, grandchildren, a great-grandchild with another one due in May of 2017. God does bless us. We can't question his reasons on why he calls others home, and many too early in their life. He is a loving God. Our loved ones chose to go down this path. That does not ease the pain and it's not easy to say.

They are still with us. Our Blessed Mother in Medjugorje in Bosnia let one of the six visionaries see her Mom on her birthday, three months after she had died. She not only saw her but she spoke to her. The mother said, "I see you each and everyday, and I'm proud of you."

So remember, they do see us in a beautiful and peaceful world above us. They are no longer in suffering. Try to love and forgive.

My book A Spiritual Renewal: A Journey to Medjugorje is a wonderful memoir showing the love in a family and miracles that bring me to Medjugorje after three miracles happened to me. My books are in paperback and Kindle. Go to my site:https://amazon.com/author/albertasequeira

Hopefully, my books will be like potato chips....you start on one and want to finish them all. As always, I welcome and love reviews on Amazon.

Give a Book that Speaks to Substance Abusers instead of You!

I will went to Durfee High School for only Saturday, December 3, 2016 from 10am-4pm. Sunday, I had other plans. Not a bad day. My best part with selling books is meeting people. So many want to share their lives with the topic of substance abuse in their families. The sad part is hearing, way too often, that the result was the death of their loved one.

The best book of the day was What is and isn't Working for the Alcoholic and Addict. Reason being, we as family members, counselors or married partners want to know what substance abusers want from us to help them seek professional help. Read the book, and leave it for them without any lectures. "I read this great book and thought you might enjoy it. Make sure you give it back when you're done." The contributors talk to them, not us.

Thirty-four alcoholic and drug user, from The United States and Canada, along with people abusing prescription drugs, tell their honest stories. Two women started drinking at five and seven years old from watching their parents. Another drank ginger ale and walked around falling to mimic parents actions at parties at home being drunk.

Learn how the mindset is with substance abusers. See how our innocent enabling only brings them deeper into their alcohol or drug abuse. Read what you do in your early years is what and who you become as an adult.

Remember Christmas is coming and a book added to a gift is a joy to someone and also educational! Facing the problem together is the start of healing and recovery.

Marijuana has passed!

You voted. Hopefully, I'm wrong and our new law doesn't add to our drug and alcohol problems. I'm sure for those who want to get high will find the locations to supply their thrills.

I hope you remember Marijuana is another step closer to heavier drugs. None of us think bad things will happen to us. They occur with others. We think we are protected.

I thought the same with my daughter, Lori, drinking. It's a stage. She'll give it up. After three rehabs, she died. November 24, 2016, will mark ten years we have lost our beautiful daughter.

She thought taking the light smokes were just helping a happy time with her friends. She added the alcohol and who knows what else.

Lori, feared dying like her father. She was by his side at the VA Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island with cirrhosis of the liver when he died at forty-five years of age. She lost hers at thirty-nine.

I'm trying to open your eyes to addiction, whether drugs or alcohol abuse. Is it worth it? Do you need to take things into your body that will kill you? Are you that bored and desperate for friends that you have to follow the crowd?

If your actions are causing problems in your life and those around you, stop..............think of it getting worse.

Poll

Facebook

About this Blog

Alberta Sequeira is from North Dartmouth, Massachusetts and is a four-time award winning Author and an Awareness Coach on Alcohol and Drug Abuse after losing her husband and daughter from North Dighton, Massachusetts to their alcohol addiction. She speaks at private events behind closed doors to the substance abusers at court-ordered programs, halfway homes, rehabilitation centers, to their family and to the public.

Her first memoir A Spiritual Renewal: A Journey to Medjugorje is about her relationship with her father, Brigadier General, Albert L. Gramm, who had been one of the commanding officers of the 26th Yankee Division during WWII, fighting in some battles like Metz, Lorraine and The Battle of the Bulge. After his death from cancer and having witnessed his love and devotion to Our Blessed Mother and the rosary, she take a ten day pilgrimage to Medjugorje in Bosnia and finds her faith again after having stepped away from the Church for over twenty years.

Her second published memoir is Someone Stop This Merry-Go-Round; An Alcoholic Family in Crisis, about losing her husband at forty-five from his alcohol addiction. Alberta opens up about her enabling that only brings Richie deeper into his addiction. It's a book of lessons on what NOT to do with a loved one drinking.

The sequel, Please, God, Not Two; This Killer Called Alcoholism is about her struggle with her daughter Lori fighing the same alcohol addiction. She goes into three substance abuse rehabs to only lose her battle at thirty-nine. Lori is put to rest with her father at the St. Patrick Cemetery in Somerset, MA.

Her Narrative Non-Fiction book What is and isn’t Working for the Alcoholics and Addicts; In Their Own Words had been written by 34 alcoholic and drug users from the USA and Canada from all walks of life telling family, counselors, doctors and society what they need from each of us to desire the help from professionals and develop the want to get into a recovery program. Alberta wanted the answers to what we are all doing wrong to help our loved ones, so she went directly to the substance abusers to get into their mind-set.

Ms. Sequeira is an educational instructor for three workshops: Bring Your Manuscript to Publication, How to Self-Publish Your Own Book with Create Space and Writing Memoirs. All three classes were made into handbooks.

She is a co-founder to Authors Without Borders (www.awb6.com) and a director, producer and co-host to the NBTV-95 Cable Show out of New Bedford, MA.

She is a contributor to The Speaker Anthology, VOL. 1 (page 98-100) by Dr. Kent Gustavson and Sally Shields.

She is in the process of working on her first fictional story, The Rusty Years, which will be in a three book series. It's about a 92-year-old woman who looks back with losing the love of her life and giving a child up for adoption. She tries to find out what went wrong before she is called home to the Pearly White Gates. Hopefully, it will be published in the later part of 2017 and readers will see a lighter side of her.